So the unthinkable has happened. Amid the speculation about Bob Woolmer's murder, no one doubts that his death came about because of his position as coach of Pakistan. It seems inextricably linked to cricket.

We are all in a state of shock. This goes beyond any of the controversies of recent times, way beyond the Packer circus, rebel tours to South Africa or match-fixing. That anyone should take a life because of the loss of a cricket match or even - and this seems less likely - the fixing of matches, reflects a hopelessly warped world.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed has indicated that the World Cup will go on, but it will always be remembered for Woolmer's murder - the time when cricket went mad. England's travails against Kenya? Pranks in a pedalo? Who cares?

In our shock we crave an explanation for this madness. The trigger reaction has been to look at all the components: Pakistan, Woolmer, once Hansie Cronje's coach, the defeat by Ireland and conclude: 'Match-fixing'. Many more connections have to be made for this to be a convincing theory.

Woolmer's widow, Gill, has been at pains to point out there is no reference to match-fixing in either of the books her husband was engaged in. Everyone close to Woolmer has said that he would have gone to the authorities rather than the media if he had serious information about match-fixing.

Moreover, the notion that Pakistan 'threw' the game against Ireland makes no sense. It is true Pakistan's match against Bangladesh in Northampton in 1999 has always been regarded with suspicion, but on that occasion their defeat did not affect the team's progress in the competition as they reached the final.

Even if there were corrupt elements within the Pakistan dressing room - and there is no evidence there is - it would have been preposterous for their players to lose on purpose against Ireland last week. They would know they would be vilified at home and that their careers as high-profile and relatively high-earning cricketers would be over. A likelier scenario - and even this takes some believing - is that passions ran high after the Ireland game and defeat led to this atrocity. We must wait for the conclusions of the Jamaican police.

The competition should go on. It will forever be tarnished and in our bewilderment there is an eagerness to lash out after such a tragedy.

Even so, Lord MacLaurin's remarks yesterday are hard to follow. 'Quite clearly now there's been some very, very severe faults in the organisation in the Caribbean. We have got to have the very best people running world cricket, otherwise we are going to continue to have these problems.' How the organisers of this World Cup are supposed to be able prevent such a freakish occurrence in a Kingston hotel is beyond me.

What becomes ever clearer is that cricket has long since lost its innocence. On the sub-continent - in particular in India - it has become a vehicle for making pots of money. So the consequence of India failing to reach the next round in this tournament is that some people will lose vast sums of money - not just illegitimately in bets but in the loss of revenue from sponsors for the TV moguls. And, fuelled by an often rabid press, the so-called fan feels justified in assaulting their cricket heroes in whatever way they can.

In this sense, the English do not know how lucky they are. Play badly and Michael Vaughan's men will receive flak in the press and some grumbles from former players, while the Barmy Army defiantly supports them come what may. As Woolmer used to say on the golf course when his opponent deposited the ball into the water: 'The ball's in the lake; nobody died.' Some sense of perspective remains.

But play badly for Pakistan or India and the consequences can be more severe. It is not only effigies of fallen heroes that can be burnt; so, too, can their houses. In Ranchi, Mahendra Dhoni's home has been damaged after India's defeat by Bangladesh. And it may be that a stunning defeat for Pakistan caused a madman to assault the coach. This is serious stuff - we are no longer in pedalo territory.

After India's defeat by Sri Lanka on Friday, which means Rahul Dravid's team depend on Bermuda beating Bangladesh today to stay in the competition, the effigies are burning again; there are mock funerals in Kanpur - a relatively harmless reaction so far. Their players will be vilified and Greg Chappell, their coach, will probably resign, amid deep disappointment and a tinge of relief.

Woolmer was no stranger to pressure and controversy throughout his career. He had been around long enough to know the landscape of Pakistan cricket when he accepted the post of coach two years ago. He made his choice knowing this was probably the most demanding coaching job in the world.

Woolmer could never resist any challenge from left field. Everyone has justifiably focused on his coaching skills, his patience with players and press and his avuncular presence on the international scene. Yet the mild-mannered Woolmer was in the background of many of those cricket controversies of the past three decades.

Along came Packer in 1977 and Woolmer was one of the six Englishmen to sign up. Maybe he was flattered because he was the only non-established Test player from England, alongside Tony Greig, Dennis Amiss, John Snow, Derek Underwood and Alan Knott. Maybe the money was irresistible. These players received undue vilification for their decision.

Along came the invitation from South Africa to play for the English 'rebels' there in 1982. There was a heated debate at the Cricketers' Association. Most of the rebels acknowledged they were going for the money. Woolmer surprised the gathering by arguing that he should go to enhance the cause of multiracial sport, an early sign of his ability for lateral thinking.

At Warwickshire, that lateral thinking was given full rein as coach alongside captain Dermot Reeve. The county were spectacularly successful, despite a minor drugs culture within the side. This made Woolmer a strong candidate for the post of South Africa coach. He was a success, but for much of his time there his captain, Cronje, was lining his pockets and staining the game.

That experience would be enough to promote the yearning for a quiet life, but Woolmer could not resist the challenge of coaching Pakistan. It was another bold decision, the chance to harness the talent of the Pakistan players proving too tempting to refuse, no matter that the politics of Pakistan's cricket would be a constant source of frustration.

He was a brilliant coach but in some ways naive, reflected by his decision to become a rebel and the fact that he inhabited dressing rooms where drug-taking and match-fixing were going on, without him noticing. Even before the Darrell Hair affair and the defeat by Ireland, he had decided to finish with Pakistan after this World Cup. A conversation with him last summer suggested that he would have been keen on the England job that he had been close to accepting in 1999. Instead, we can only mourn a man whose devotion to the sport took him to the strangest places and the most heinous end.